


Frame by Frame.

by buckybuchanen



Series: Steve/Bucky One Shots. [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Animator Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Returns, M/M, Natasha Is a Good Bro, One Shot, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-29 05:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8476546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybuchanen/pseuds/buckybuchanen
Summary: Steve is back from the ice. With paper, pencil and a light box, he makes a series of animations to cope and help pass the time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short one shot about animator!Steve and Bucky. I wrote this purely for fun on the train ride home one day, so I'm sorry if there are any errors with canon.

“You can't just sit here, Rogers.” Her voice rang through the speaker, tinny and distant. 

He didn't respond. If he stayed quiet just a bit longer, she'd just leave him alone.

“You're gonna go even crazier than you already are, you old coot.” 

He knew that.

He ignored her and continued.

She eventually hung up. 

“Mr Rogers,” Jarvis spoke, “Miss Romanoff is on her way up.”

*

Steve Rogers was different. He knew it when he was young, when his lungs were practically useless, when he discovered that colours looked way different than he thought they did, and when he found himself sick during the winter when children his age enjoyed themselves out in the snow. He knew it in his adolescence, when he lost his hearing in his right ear, when he couldn't find a girl, when he got beat up in every alleyway but fought back. He knew it in adulthood, when he fought tooth and nail to enlist, when he agreed to be in an experiment that could've killed him and when he turned into the ideal man. 

And there were some things he knew all along, like the fact that you weren't supposed to like your best friend the way you were supposed to like women. 

He remembered watching Bucky, his best friend and the man so dear to his heart, talk to women. He'd cock an eyebrow, flash a grin, hold a hand and break Steve’s heart.

Although, nothing could compare to the freight train.

When Steve lied down at night, he could still hear him. He could hear the scream that gradually decreased in volume but tore at his heart. 

Steve Rogers was different.

*

He was sitting in the living room of the apartment Stark let him stay in. He'd been out of the ice for three months by then. 

He was reading a book Bruce recommended. A children's book,  
Harry Potter. He was getting more depressed by the day, and he had to do something. He'd ate up all the information he could from the Internet, and he was breezing through one book after another.

But he couldn't draw. Because every time he would, he'd draw him. Or her. And she was a sadder case.

Peggy.

He remembered visiting her. She was resting, brown curls now silver and red lips turned pale. Her eyes remained the same, though. Intelligent, mature, mischievous, but ultimately, confused. She'd looked at him, shocked by the youth she was seeing. In another life, they could've been side by side. Because he did fall in love with her, too.

Or he could've been beside Bucky.

But yes, he was sitting in the living room. The third Harry Potter book propped up and he was so engrossed in it, he barely heard Jarvis announce Natasha’s arrival.

“What house are you in, Cap?”

He jumped and pursed his lips, “can you at least knock?”

She smirked and sat next to him.

“You didn't answer my question.”

“I don't know. Gryffindor, I guess.”

“Nice choice. I didn't come here for your nerdiness. I bear gifts.”

She pulled out a pad from a bag he didn't see and a rectangular box.

“Is that…”

“Yes.”

It was a sketch pad and a set of pencils he wouldn't have been able to afford back then. He took them and smiled at her, “thanks, Nat.”

“You better draw. I've seen your drawings in the Smithsonian. Don't let your talents waste away.”

He didn't want to. He nodded anyway and placed the gifts next to him.

“I'm here cause Clint’s busy with Banner. Want to watch the first two movies?”

He grinned, “sure.”

*

The first drawing he made was of Bucky.

It truly saddened him. He wished Bucky was better off, probably united with his parents. He made sure to pray for him before bed, and he hoped it helped.

*

He didn't know what gave him the idea.

He was drawing another drawing when he looked up and saw a cartoon on TV. He remembered how much Bucky and he loved going to the pictures, and when that Snow White came out, they'd lost their minds.

So, he ordered a light box from Amazon. 

*

It's been six months since he's been out of the ice.

He'd animated so many scenes. Simple ones, not too detailed but obviously of Bucky and himself.

He animated Bucky smiling, the both of them laughing, the both of them hugging. 

Natasha had seen the work he’d done and encouraged him. He knew she thought it was sad, but she didn't bring it up in front of the others.

*

Eventually, he went on missions. 

The animations still continued.

*

The air was heavy and thick in his lungs, like it was in his first life with the asthma. Shock shook him to the core. He couldn't believe it. 

“Bucky?”

“Who the hell is Bucky?”

*

“You have to stop making these cartoons, Steve, they're driving you crazy,” Sam told him, “he's not the same person.”

“I know what I'm doing, Sam.”

He continued.

*  
“You should submit them to the Smithsonian,” Nat said as she looked over his shoulder. They'd just defeated Ultron a few days prior.

“Seems kind of creepy, don't you think?”

“What? Pining over a dead guy who's actually not dead at all? Not at all.”

He crumpled a piece of paper and threw it at her head and she caught it skillfully.

*

Bucky was in cryogenic storage.

Steve’s heart was torn to shreds.

*

Bucky had finally woken up. It took a while but eventually Bucky wrapped his arms around Steve. The first hug they shared in decades 

“I missed you,” Steve mumbled into Bucky’s shoulder, brushing his hand through brown hair.

“Can't say I missed you too if I didn't remember you at all,” Bucky joked.

Steve cried, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up.

*

They were both in Steve’s living room. Just like old times, they sat wrapped around one another. Back then, Steve could've brushed it off as trying to stay warm. They had no excuse now.

Steve was reading the Harry Potter books again, with Bucky reading over his shoulder.

“Mr Rogers,” Jarvis spoke, shocking them, “you have a package from Miss Romanoff.”

Bucky looked at Steve with a raised eyebrow, but Steve just shrugged. He walked to his front door and opened it to see a square box on the ground. 

He picked it up, shut the door and walked back to the couch.

“What you got there?” Bucky asked, marking the page with a scrap piece of paper.

“I have no idea.”

He opened it and saw a DVD, along with a note.

Steve,

I made you the best gift ever. Watch this with your Bucky.

Natasha.

“Your Bucky?” Bucky repeated with a chuckle, “Got a nice ring to it. Go play the DVD, my Steve.”

Steve laughed it off, but inside he was dreading the worst.

Oh, Natasha, what have you done?

*

Steve wanted to die.

It was all his work, for the past few years. All of his animations, all dedicated to Bucky and some to Peggy, playing one after another, and Bucky wouldn't let him turn it off. His favourite songs from back then were playing in the background while Bucky watched with an unreadable expression.

He was going to throw Natasha out the window.

*

“So… You really drew all that?” Bucky asked after a long, torturous hour. 

Steve was mortified. The ending was the two of them kissing. He wanted to die so badly, wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

He nodded.

“And is that how you really feel… About me?”

He nodded again.

Bucky nodded back.

It was over, he knew it was gonna be over. He got up to turn it off when he felt a tug at his shirt and he plopped back down on the couch.

“You know, you could've told me back then.” Bucky said with a smile that was nearing on mischievous.

“How? It was wrong back then—”

“Didn't stop me. Now, what if I told you I'm pretty sure, like 98% sure, I felt the same way.”

“I wouldn't believe you.”

“Now what if I did this?”

He never thought he'd feel Bucky’s lips on his. He felt like he was floating, like this was all a dream. He felt like he was going to wake up alone in his bed while Bucky was still in cryo. 

But this was real and he never wanted it to stop.

*  
He was sitting at his desk, drawing on the light box.

Bucky was reading, every now and then he'd turn the page. 

And every now and then, Steve would draw a new frame of him doing that.

“Don't you get bored of drawing me?”

“I've been drawing your stupid face since we were kids, I'm not getting bored now.”

He went back to animating when Bucky interrupted the silence again.

“I love you, Stevie.”

Steve grinned so much, his cheeks hurt. 

“I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it!


End file.
